His Business, Her Love
by Joona
Summary: People say it's dangerous and confusing to mix business with love. In Gippal's case with Rikku, it really is.
1. Female Drama

**NOTE: (please read this & thanks :) )  
**In this fic, everything is still the same, like the characters' personalities, appearance and such, but the "world of FFX" itself is different. It'll take place in a much more modern setting – similar to present-day Japan. I'm going to be using the same FFX-2 town names, its history, and etc., but it's going to be modified.

Don't get me wrong; I love how the game is.

If you're wondering about the "past" with Sin and Shuyin or whatever… in this fic, those events have already passed, but I don't want to delve into it much in here. It's going to get weird, lame and confusing if I attempt to explain it all in this modern-story.

And I don't want this fic to be viewed as one of those flop, sorta-high-school-ish, girly-to-the-max, plot-less kind of stories. I'm trying to make it more than that. :)

_Also…  
_In the beginning, Rikku might seem like a typical-high-school-fanfic-kind of girl in the events that she goes through in the first chapter (it's not too lame, I think and hope, haha), but it's for the story's purposes. As the story progresses, things will change. Hopefully, she'll have a little more of the same personality that she has in the game.

Okay. So here's my story of Rikku and Gippal. Enjoy. :)

* * *

**His Business, Her Love **

**Chapter One: "Drama"**

****  
_Rikku__  
_

I'm late for school.

"RIKKU! I HOPE YER GETTING YOUR BUTT OUTTA HERE BY NOW!"

Okay. So I'm late again… it could probably be why Pops is screaming his head off right now. Man, you would have thought that I blew up his favourite machina.

Ah well. And as I stand in my immense room, staring at my reflection in my full-length, gold-rimmed mirror, I annoyingly notice that I've got a bad hair day.

I sigh. Whatever man. My hair is tied up in the usual way, but it looks messy right now, and I can't do anything about it. As for my school uniform, it's just a white formal blouse with a cotton red vest with my school's insignia on it, along with a plaid grey skirt. I folded it up and pinned it a few inches higher, but I made sure to wear spandex black shorts underneath. I'd rather not look slutty, thank you very much.

But Shina… just takes it to the next level. I caught her screwing with some guy in the bathroom stall a couple of days ago. And if I wore glasses, the sight would have splintered them. From then on, Shina didn't like me just because I told two people about what I saw.

Well, news spreads fast so around fifty people know, and that would be it. Meh. She should have gotten a room at least. Not my problem, nope.

Arisu on the other hand… Augh. She clearly puts the itch in b–

Fine, I won't swear. But she really is one. I don't really know why she's like that towards me. I see her pretty nice to other people, but when she turns to me, she looks at me as if I took her boyfriend or something. Sometimes, (I won't admit it), but it can be a little intimidating.

Then there's Hiro.

I'm not blushing.

Fine, I'm lying.

But he's such a great guy. He's friendly, smart, hot, athletic, cheerful, hot, kind, out-going, hot, patient, hot, hot, hot, hot –

Okay, I got carried away. But you get the picture.

You gotta believe me – he's a gorgeous guy inside and out. He's got amazing blonde hair (sure, so does every Al Bhed person), but his shines all the time, and his hair's a little longer than most guys, yet he pulls it off by flaring it out. His eyes are such a deep green colour that you can drown in it. His smile's perfect, and his slender, tall body's toned and packed with rippled muscles. AH, he makes every girl swoon.

And I'll grudgingly admit, there's one more guy that's able to do that too…

Gippal.

EW. I don't want to think about it. Time to wipe his image away from my mind with Hiro's picture.

Ahhh… much better.

Anyways, I'm starving. Time to go eat.

So I dash out of my room with my schoolbag, and run down the long, spiraling staircase to the kitchen and hurriedly grab anything from the pantry. After stuffing the pastry that I've chosen into my mouth, I turn on the TV that was attached to the front of the refrigerator. Man, I love it. Now I don't ever have to bring my food and walk to the living room or wherever – except I'm being called a pig by Gippal.

Augh… Gippal!

Anyways, moving on, I happen to land on the news channel. I turn it on in time to hear the news anchor say, "…gang activity. They seem to be planning on targeting major corporations. The public is advised to be on alert." The man grins. "In other news, the young president of the Machina Faction company has stated in an interview that he will be taking a slight break from his business. As everyone is well aware, this 18-year-old prodigy has done incredible work in the past. Starting from yesterday, he had also said that he will be attending – "

ARGH, GIPPAL.

I turn off the TV. I couldn't care less about that arrogant, skirt-chasing Gippal. Oohh, he makes me so angry at times. Hmmph. A prodigy? Yeah right.

Why am I so negative about Gippal? Ha, it's more like why aren't I _more _negative about him. Okay, it's not like I hate him or anything… we've been closer when we were younger. We were pretty much best friends – and then it escalated into something more.

Whew boy. I think it was the most beautiful disaster ever.

I mean, I loved every single moment with him. It felt so real to be in his arms… even if his one eye did roam around time to time to other girls. But it didn't really matter to me; I knew he liked me only and was just doing that to piss me off. Oh yeah, it worked and it rewarded him a couple of punches, but other than that, everything was good. I think I was 14 or 15 at the time.

And now I'm 17 with a single status, and feeling pretty damn all right still.

Minus the fact that I kinda wish we didn't end what we had. Don't get me wrong; I didn't dump him and he didn't break up with me either. We just sorta… drifted off. There was this big thing about the Crimson Squad, which was like a military group that takes in the most elite fighters, and Gippal was interested and strong enough to enroll for it. I went my own way as well, and went to help out my dad with the machina. Oh sure, Gippal and I tried to write to each other, but it never really worked out. The letters and phone calls became fewer and fewer, until I heard from friends that he was going out with four girls – at the same time. I clearly remember punching a hole in the wall when I heard that. I also remember refusing to talk to him when he came back from his training. But he convinced me that he still liked me, and suggested we have dinner together. But then I bitterly remember as well that some prostitute came running into his arms while I was with him, and was all over the damn guy.

Psh. Whatever. It's not like I cared – but I did care enough that I scared the slut away. After that, I haven't talked to Gippal much.

"RIKKUUUU! I THOUGHT YOU LEFT ALREADY! GET YER SLOW ARSE ON THE MOVE!"

Yes, Pops. Thanks for reminding me. Jeez, yelling from the stairs isn't very kind of him… and since we live in a big house, it's even worse to hear his voice echoing everywhere.

In fact, we don't really live in a 'house'… we live in more like a mansion. And honestly, I'm not that thrilled. Although we have a housemaid and all, I still have to do so many chores, and the huge damn space doesn't help me out. I really do wish we lived somewhere smaller. It's only because Pops is the leader of the Al Bhed people that he gets to live in a place like this. But I gotta admit, Pops picked out a nice place to live in. The mansion's pearl white on the outside, complete with balconies looking out to the open space and onto our winding driveway that's lined with gorgeous bushes and cherry blossom trees. And after arguing about getting a bird fountain, we got one, and the inside of the place is just as nice – everything's marble and spotless… and I freaking kid you not. I should know; I have to clean like three quarters of the place. Augh. Pops calls it discipline. I call it child labour.

"RIIIKKKKUUUUUUU!!!"

"OKAY, POPS!" I yell. "I'm going, I'm going!"

I run out the house in a flash, almost knocking the kind housemaid, Linette, over as I fling the door open.

"Have a good day, Rikku!" Linette calls after me.

I throw her a smile and a wave as I sprint out to get my sports car.

Damn straight, a car – and a sexy red one too. It looks like my child labour pays off with Pops. Heh.

So time to go to school.

* * *

Now time to get out of school.

I wish.

On the way to school, I had parked my car in the school parking lot (being the daughter Al Bhed leader rocks), and it got verrryyyyyy windy outside.

Sigh. Now it looks like a chocobo made a nest on my head.

Now how can I look good for Hiro?

Anyways, I'm stuck in homeroom, sitting at my desk, half-asleep, and everyone else is sitting or standing around, chatting. I see Arisu, with her short and layered hair cropped to her chin, giving me a withering look before talking to other people. Meh. Whatever. I already made my greetings and so have the rest of the people, and they know I'm tired so they're kind enough to give me some space. Ah, such good friends…

– Unlike the group of five skanky girls approaching me at the moment.

Hey, look who's at the front – their fearless, slutty, stuck-up leader – Shina.

Good Spira, could she at least pull down her skirt a tiny bit?

Shina stops at my desk and crosses her arms. She flips her long, layered, dark blonde hair out of her face, and glares at me haughtily with her cat-like eyes. "So, Rikku, how are you?"

Hmn… I never thought she would care. So I respond anyway.

"Fine. So what would you like, Shina?" I give her a Rikku-grin. Yes, I named my smirk. I curl my lips enough to show my teeth slightly locked in a Rikku-grin. I know it bugs people like Shina, and it makes people like me feel good.

Shina narrows her eyes. "You won't be smiling much after what I have to say."

Her group starts to mutter darkly about me.

Oh man. She wants to start something. Why does she have to do it now? And really, do I have time and patience for this? Do I really want to stoop to her immaturity level? Whatever. I'm bored anyway.

I give her an even bigger Rikku-grin. "Go on."

That's when Shina started shrieking.

"You bitch, how many people have you told?"

I give her a slightly puzzled look. I'm a little lost.

Oh wait. She's talking about the washroom incident. Ah.

People are starting to take notice of what's going on and begin to watch the situation unravel. Great. We're going to have an audience.

"Hmn… I've actually don't got a clue."

"Don't lie to me! I know you told a lot of people!"

"About what?" I like to feign ignorance in situations like these. It deeply ticks off Shina. It's actually amusing to watch her fume underneath her infinite layers of makeup.

"You know what I'm talking about!"

I give a dramatic pause. "Oh, yeah, I think I do. You and that guy were getting it on in the girls' bathroom stall, right? I remember! I almost got a heart attack when I saw."

"Bitch, you didn't need to go around spreading rumours!"

I feel a pinch of annoyance. She needs to wash her mouth.

"Rumours? It's called a fact, Shina. And I only told two people."

"Then how does the rest of the school know?!"

I give a sarcastic gasp. "Wow, I don't know… maybe they've got mouths and started telling each other? It could be very likely that it happened like that…"

"Don't give me this bull! You could have kept it to yourself!!"

"No, _you _don't give me this bull. You could have kept your slut-life to yourself."

People start to whisper and gather around us slightly. Shina's eyes seem to be on fire.

"What did you say?!"

"What, slut?" I say calmly. Ohhh, I'm such a bad girl. But really, she shouldn't be making a scene like this. She could have yelled at me somewhere else rather than be such a drama-queen, as she just craves for attention. I never liked her in the first place anyway. Besides, she needs to learn a lesson. The way she acts degrades women, and I really don't want to see some sex-machine like her go off doing Spira-knows-what with Spira-knows-who, and start complaining at me that –

SLAP.

There's a stunned silence.

Shina gives me a triumphant, wicked smile as she eyes me feeling my cheek. I feel a small stinging pain, and I can tell from people's faces that it's red.

It doesn't hurt much. But it doesn't mean I won't hurt Shina.

With another famous Rikku-grin, I swiftly slap Shina across the face as well. Everyone gasps as they see her stagger from the pain. Meh. She should be grateful. I could have just easily punched her out, but I don't start fist-fights with girls. And besides, Shina can't fight for beans. It would make me look oh so bad if I have the advantage and knock her out.

Shina's eyes are blazing, and this time, she tries to swing a fist at me.

Sigh. She never learns.

I manage to duck in time and the cat-fight starts to escalate.

I keep dodging her blows easily as she claws her way at me, trying to scratch me like a cat at a post. I snicker, lightly stepping out of the way as she keeps missing, and people around us are starting to cheer and talk amongst themselves. No one wants to break the fight up. They know I'm not being serious so it's all for good fun – for me, that is.

But Shina and her friends seem to disagree, as one of her groupies pushes me very hard from behind, and I lose my balance slightly, allowing Shina to pounce in and grab my hair.

Oh, to hell with Spira. She just… she did not just…

Shina starts to wrench my hair around and I give a growl.

Oh yes, she did.

I knee her in the stomach and she lets go instantly. She wheezes but tries to claw at my hair again, but then I also grab onto her hair and yank her close to me, while she wails. Then I quickly put her in an uncomfortable head-lock, and she tries to squirm but it doesn't work. She kicks at me but I kick her back. And suddenly, one of Shina's friends smacks me in the face, and the other girls kick me. I give another growl, and I'm about to kick back at them, but then my other classmates get involved, the girls howling that it's not fair that it's five against one, and dive right in.

Oh Spira. It's a Classroom War of the Girls.

And I can see the guys hooting from the sides, and already making bets about who's going to win. I hear my name being mentioned in their discussion.

Shina's group are really vicious skanks, and start to slap, punch, bite, scratch at everyone, and successfully do so as girls wail about their hair and skin. I feel a girl yank at my hair and I kick her behind me. Shina takes the opportunity, and squeezes her way out and gives me a punch in the jaw.

Oh, that little –

I give her a good punch, and next thing I know, some girl jumps on my back and beats at me. I try to shake the stupid monkey off, but she's also grabbing onto my hair, trying to rip it off and hanging onto my neck at the same time.

AH, what's with hating on the hair?! NOW I'm furious.

I throw the girl off by bashing into a desk, and then I aim a kick at Shina before she punches me again. Another girl scratches me, and I lash out at her as well, and we're all just screaming, wailing, bitching, scratching, punching, and grabbing onto hair and anything else. It's insane.

As I grab onto Shina's collar and about to give her another piece of my mind, I hear the teacher yell, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GIRLS DOING?"

We all freeze and slowly look up at our female teacher, Ms. Talia. Her emerald eyes are flashing behind her glasses, and I can see a vein twitching out of her forehead that's underneath her blonde hair tied up in a tight bun. Her legs are tense in her dark grey suit, and her hands are clenched into fists.

Ohhh, she looks very pissed indeed.

"RIKKU. LET SHINA GO RIGHT NOW."

I give a small pout and shove the skank away.

Then Shina starts putting up a show for the teacher. It makes me sick. I see her spilling out her infamous, fake, last minute tears. Now it's just between Shina, the pissed-looking Ms. Talia, and me.

"Oh, Ms. Talia! Ms. Talia, it was so horrible. Look at what Rikku did. It wasn't any of our faults. You see, Rikku's been spreading lies all around the school, and even though I haven't done anything, she thinks it's okay to spread false rumours around and – "

I glare at Shina. "You're kidding. It was the truth, so stop – "

"And when I confronted Rikku nicely just now, she started to yell at me. I got really uncomfortable, and then I politely told her to calm down – "

I interrupt her. "Really? Didn't you call me a bitch a couple of times –?"

"Don't listen to her, Ms. Talia! She's lying again. She always is. So I tell her nicely to calm down, and then Rikku punches me out of nowhere! Oh, it hurts so much, Ms. Talia. Look at my bruise right here, you can see it, it's so big – "

"How do you know if that was me? You're quite the blind skank, you know. It wasn't just me beating you up – "

"See, Ms. Talia? She's calling me a skank when I'm not!"

"Pull down your skirt, then say you're not, please."

"Ms. Talia, Rikku's a liar!"

"Ms. Talia, Shina's a liar and a skank."

"I'm not a skank, you bitch!"

"Oh, Shina, I don't like your language."

"Rikku, I'm gonna kill you!!"

Before the drama sinks deeper, Ms. Talia yells, "ENOUGH ALREADY. This is ridiculous. Exactly how old are you girls? You're seniors! Honestly, if you two have the urge to rip each other's hair out in anger, I do NOT want it in my class. Take it outside! It's embarrassing that you are my students. I won't tolerate it!" Ms. Talia glares at the rest of the girls. "The same goes to you as well! I expected from all of you!" Then she gives a death glare at the boys, who were trying to pretend that they didn't see the all-out-female brawl. "AND YOU. Don't try to pretend that you didn't see anything! I'm so disappointed and furious. You could have at least taken an ounce of your brainpower to discourage the fight! This is not wrestling – you need to take your heads out of the gutter and shape up!" The boys look sheepishly at one another. Ms. Talia then whips her head to the classroom door, and barks, "Hiro! Bring him in!"

My stomach clenches. Oh noooo! Why Hiro? Aw man, I don't want him to see me like this. My hair looks like five hundred chocobos made a nest out of it, and I've got scratches and bruises everywhere, not to mention that my clothes are tattered, and DAMMIT, my hair's such a mess right now, oh no, he's looking at me with surprise, and I wonder if he's disgusted with me, but I'll make it up to him, I'll do anything, I'll clean his house, I'll cook for him, I'll wash his feet, I'll even –

I stop rambling. I feel a deep pit in my stomach forming. I can't believe it.

Behind Hiro is a guy walking in, and he's smirking at the disaster before him.

The guy looks straight at me, and gives an even bigger smirk. "Hey, Cid's girl."

I almost pass out.

* * *

Reviews would be very helpful. Thanks. :)

I would like to know if my story's bad or not that I took a different view of FFX-2 and made it more "modern". Is it too weird?

In any case, I hope you enjoyed the story so far. The next chapter will be in Gippal's POV. And since school's hectic, I can't promise a quick update. But when exams are over, you'll get to read more of the story quickly.

If you found this story uninteresting, then don't worry, it'll develop… this is just an introduction. :) The plot will thicken a lot more later.


	2. Reunion with Cid's Girl

Disclaimer: I don't own FFX-2 or FFX. I wish I did. Haha.

**His Business, Her Love**

**Chapter Two: Reunion with Cid's Girl**

_Gippal_

When I stepped into the classroom, I thought it was hilarious. It was like I walked into a war zone of crazy girls with scratch marks all over, their clothes wrecked, and not to mention their hair. I could even detect some bruises here and there. Damn, I wish I could have seen the fight from the beginning. I would have wanted to jump in. But I don't want to ruin my white collared shirt… and my expensive dark grey trousers… and my even more expensive watch…

But moving on, the first person I see is Rikku. Ha, she looks stunned to see me. I guess she didn't see the news or something.

"Hey, Cid's girl," I say with a big smirk.

Rikku looks like she wants to faint – either from joy, shock, or illness, I've got no idea. I'm gonna assume that she's gonna faint out of joy and shock.

"Gi-Gipal?" Rikku stammers. "What the heck are you doing here? Shouldn't – shouldn't you be at work? Why are you here?"

I shake my head. She really didn't see the news. "C'mon, Cid's girl. Get with the program. Every single Al Bhed person knows. I would expect the daughter of the Al Bhed leader would be one of the first to know."

Rikku glares at me, regaining her composure. "Get to the point, Gippal. What's going on?"

The pissed-looking teacher, Ms. Talia, cuts in and says tersely, "Not now, Rikku. Don't pressure Gippal here" – I flinch a tiny bit in annoyance at this – "Just sit at your seat. Now." Then she glares at the rest of the class, and yells, "And that goes for all of you! Don't think I'll forget what happened!"

The students mutter to each other and gradually take their seats in rows. I remain standing at the front with the pissed teacher. And speaking of her, I never heard for so long an adult calling me just "Gippal". I usually hear "Sir" or "Mr. Gippal", or even "Mr. Sexy Sir Gippal". Okay, I'm kidding. But the first two names are true. Meh, I'll get her to start calling me that soon. All I gotta do is use my dashing smiles and I'll be good.

And as I stand here, I see the guy who was my guide for the school – I think his name was Hipo or something – starts attempting to talk with Rikku.

And I blanch a bit.

Is she… no way. Is she actually blushing a bit there? Good Spira, she can't be. She never blushed around me before. All I remember were a bunch of evil glares, cold remarks, and punches that even Sin would cry from. Oh… and of course there were those great times when we were alone. Nah, we did nothing horny (although I wouldn't mind much), but I can never forget those moments.

As I gaze around the classroom, I can already detect some pretty girls here and there. I can also see the whole class whispering to each other excitedly, especially the girls, saying things like, "Is that really Gippal? _The_ guy who owns Machine Faction? No way."

Heh. Of course I don't feel cocky and hot at the moment.

However, some girl, with short and layered hair cropped to the middle of her neck, is staring at me intently right now. Damn, I think I know her… but now that I've stared back at her, she looked away. Hmn.

Anyways, Ms. Talia, if that's her name, tells her students sternly, "All right. Settle down, class." She gives a small pause. "Now that we've calmed down, I'd like to express that I'm highly disappointed that Gippal here – " Again, I flinch a tiny bit at this – "had to witness such a scene just now. I thought you girls were more mature than this. And to the boys, I also thought you would have some common sense to try to stop such a thing from happening. I expect this to never occur again. UNDERSTOOD?" The class jumps in surprise.

"Y-Yes, Ms. Talia," they all say in chorus.

The crazy teacher nods. "Okay then. Now, as you can see, we have a special student joining us today."

The class titters in excitement and in amazement.

But Rikku looks like she swallowed two chocobos. She seems stunned as hell… and even pissed.

"He's a student, Ms. Talia?" Rikku asks, looking as if the woman was just joking around.

Ms. Talia nods and gives her a sharp look. "Yes, Rikku. He will be a student here. Did you not see the news at all? Where have you been?"

I can see a vein twitching out of Rikku's forehead in agitation. Oh boy. She's pissed but she's keeping it in.

"Yeah, well, even the whole school doesn't know, Ms., or else I would have heard people talking about that guy," Rikku interjects coldly.

Say what? "That guy"? I'm not just any kind of guy. Dammit, people need to respect me more around here.

"Fine," says Ms. Talia. "In any case, to fill you all in, out of all the prestigious schools out there, we are flattered to have Gippal choose this school to be his own for the year."

The class is silent, paying close attention.

Ms. Talia continues, "He'll be taking a small break from his business, and will be a temporary student out of his own choice. Nonetheless, he's now a student of this school, and I expect you all to treat him with respect – and I mean a lot more than you showed to each other just minutes ago." Some male students chuckle quietly at this. "AND DON'T YOU DARE TRY LAUGHING, BOYS." The guys blanch and immediately shut up.

Damn. This woman is nuts.

The teacher on crack turns to me sharply. "Now get to your seat."

I don't move. I mean, what the hell is this? What's with the disrespect? Honestly, I keep forgetting why I picked this school… and I wonder why I don't just punch this woman out and leave on the spot. It would do this school a favour. Then again, that would ruin my reputation. I won't let her get to me. But let's see if I can get this stiff woman to budge.

I give her a gleaming smile that makes the girls (except for Rikku) start to giggle and whisper about me. "Could I just stand for a bit? I don't feel like sitting down."

The teacher just looks at me, her expression unreadable. Ha, I think I got her hooked. I know no female can resist my charm. It's worked on every woman before. I know I'm irresistible. Even the male population is envious of me, desperately wishing that they could have the same sexiness that only I can exude. Hell, I know this teacher's around my finger now.

"Gippal…"

Oh _vilg_. She's a lesbian. It's not working.

The woman's eyes begin to narrow. "I'm quite surprised. I thought you were paying attention. It seems I need to remind you, so I'll say it again: you're now a student of this school. I don't care even if you owned half of Spira right now. You've enrolled into this school, which means you're supposed to abide to every rule – and one of them is listening to the teacher. You might be the president of Machine Faction, but I'm the dictator of this class. I won't repeat myself to you for a second time. But for your benefit, I'll repeat my instruction, just in case you heard something else: sit down right now, Gippal, before you get a detention on your first day."

The classroom goes silent. Everyone's looking at one another. The students look shock that Ms. Talia could say something like that to me. And I'm actually a little shocked too. But I don't show it, especially since I hear Rikku snickering in the background.

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have been so confident.

Nah.

Willing myself very hard to not shoot the woman, I keep up my smile and shrug my shoulders a little. "Sure, Ms. Talia."

I casually walk away to an empty seat in the middle of the room with my suitcase, swearing in my head at her and planning to get her run over by my car. When I take a seat, I look around and notice that I'm sitting behind the girl with the short hair, but I can't see her face; on my left side beside me is this girl with cat-like eyes, who's giving me this horny stare; and on my other side is – oh _vilg_. Rikku.

Rikku glares at me fiercely before looking the other way.

I sigh. It's going to be a crap day.

* * *

I was actually wrong. It's not a crap day. It's a crap and boring day.

I sit at my desk, drumming my fingers lightly on the surface as I struggle to keep awake, trying to listen to the old lady talking about Spira's history. I'm bored out of my mind. I think we're on second period, History class. Bah.

And I can't wait to get out of here. The old teacher's rather freaky. I think her name's Mrs. Sato. Well, I don't really care what her name is. She keeps giving me these… looks. I usually don't mind them, but when women like her, who look around in their mid-forties and are hitting on me, it forces me to put my foot down. I do have some integrity, you know.

I glance over to Rikku on my right. She seems to be paying attention to the lady.

I chuckle quietly to myself. It doesn't seem like Rikku's the studious type. To be really honest, Rikku looks like a ditzy, dumb blonde at first – although every single Al Bhed person is blonde, there's those who look like they fall into the category of "dumb blondes". In any case, I know personally that Rikku's not an idiot, 'cause first off, she's in the same class as me, when she should be attending classes in the lower grade. After showing off to everyone when she was younger that she could fix machina and do a bunch of other crap, her father and teachers decided to make her bump up a grade. I remember she and I went out together for a dinner to celebrate her achievement. Yeah, those were good times.

But who cares. It was the past and I don't want to think back to it.

Anyways, the girl on my left keeps eyeing me. Heh. But she, on the other hand, looks like a "dumb blonde" completely. But hey, she's hot.

I give her my shining Gippal-grin. Yeah, I named it, and the girl falls for it.

"Hi there," the girl purrs quietly, eyeing me with great interest. "So you're the famous Gippal."

My grin widens slightly more and I reply, "Hi to you too. Yeah, I'm Gippal. How about you?"

"I'm Shina. I hope we get to know each other more." She gives a little yawn and pretends she's stretching, but I know it's just to thrust and show off her large chest.

Wow. She's already hitting on me. I could probably sleep with her tonight. If I wanted to.

"Oh hell, we will." I give her a sly wink and she giggles in response.

"So, you find class any fun?" I ask. "'Cause we can just leave, and I can give you a ride." I give her a mischievous grin.

"Oh really?" Her eyebrows arch in interest. "And where would you take me?"

"I don't know. We could always spend some time in the back seat alone."

She lets out a giggle. "That's kinky."

I chuckle as well. "What? Who said we're gonna do anything like that?"

Shina gives me a rather puzzled look. I smirk.

I got her a little confused and that's what I want. Heh, I might be flirty, but I'm hard to get. I need a tough girl to get to me, and then have her make me work and want to get her. I'm not exactly an easy guy; I'm a challenge.

"Well… what if I wanted to do something like it?"

"I don't know…" I say slowly, smirking even wider.

Shina eyes me with even greater interest. "You make a girl go crazy, you know that?"

"I bet I could do more than that."

Her eyes narrow as she gives a seductive smile. "You should show me." She starts to entwine her hair through her fingers slowly.

Oh, forget tonight. I could do it during lunch.

"Yeah, why don't you guys do it in the bathroom stall?"

Shina and I look over to the person who spoke, and we see Rikku giving us disgusted looks.

"Shut the hell up, Rikku," Shina hisses.

Rikku rolls her eyes. "Yeah, Shina, I'm going to listen to you." Then she glares at me, and growls, "And I thought you would have turned out better by now. But you're still the same cocky, flirty jerk." Then she looks back at the teacher and completely ignores me.

Oh my Spira. What the hell is wrong with her? From the moment I came in, Rikku's been such a… such a girl on her period ever since then. What did I do wrong this time?

Wait. Is she talking about the past? If so, she might be talking about what happened on the day that I came back from training with the Crimson Squad. Hmn, that could be it. Right… and then I remember convincing her enough to not murder me, and I brought her over to a restaurant for dinner. But then…

Oh shit.

I think I also remember some girl running up to me out of nowhere, calling my name, and trying to make out with me on the spot. I can't seem to recall how she looked like. All I remember is that she wore very little clothing, and her bust was huge. Heh… but Rikku looked like she was going to stab both of us. Yeah, that was a scary night. I didn't sleep well that day. But honestly, I think Rikku took it a bit too far. I've never went out with that girl, I'm pretty sure, and even though she might look sexy, I never had much interest in her.

Sometimes, I do think Rikku's an idiot. I remember she stormed off after terrifying the girl, and I tried to run after her. I actually did catch up with her and I demanded to know what was her problem. She turned around and just yelled at me in Al Bhed, telling me that the last thing she needed to see was some prostitute making out with me, and that I flirt way too much. But she must have known that I only wanted her. Why does she think I wanted to spend time with her before? Like I said, I'm a challenge and I want a tough girl. And Rikku's tough, no doubt about it, but… even now, I can see she's different. Hell, she blushed for that twerp, Hiro. Since when has she ever lead guys on like that?

But maybe… I flirt too much? No way, Gippal flirts to a minimum level. In any case, all I know is that ever since I went to the Crimson Squad, things were different between her and I. She must have heard some stupid junk from other girls about me. Whatever. I'm not gonna go up to her and sort this out. She caused this problem and she can come up to me first. I don't care much about her anyway.

But then why do I think of her at times?

Good Spira, I'm losing my head. I think I need to drink. Yeah, I'll go drink at the bar tonight. I'm insane to be thinking of Cid's girl. I'm not gonna go through that shit again.

But it was good shit while it lasted.

* * *

I'm about to fall asleep.

I look over to Cid's girl and she still seems like she's paying attention. Man, how does she do it? But I feel like bugging her anyway.

"Hey," I whisper to her at the corner of my mouth. "Cid's girl."

She ignores me.

"Cid's girl."

No response.

"Yo, Cid's girl."

Again, she ignores me. What the hell?

I whisper even louder, "Hey, Tom-boy."

She finally looks at me and it's a dead icy glare. I shudder inwardly. "What?" she says flatly.

I jerk my thumb to the door. "You want to leave? This class is so boring. Let's have an early lunch – you and me."

She gives me an even colder look, and throws me a mean smile. "No thanks, Gippal. I'd rather stay here than go eat lunch with you. Maybe some other girl can do that. Besides, I'm having lunch with Hiro today." Then she turns her head to the teacher and completely ignores me once again.

Ouch. That girl is fucking cold when she wants to be.

But screw her. And screw Hiro, that pathetic pretty-boy. She can screw him all she wants, in fact. But I would have to kill Hiro "accidentally" with my car anyway.

I lean back my head and sigh.

Holy chocobo, it's only third period. When the HELL will we have lunch break? All these classes are so boring. Now I keep wondering why I made that statement of going back to school for a bit. Stupid Gippal… stupid, sexy Gippal… No wait, I think it was for the girls. Yeah, that's right. But something keeps bothering me at the back of my mind, and I'm too reluctant to pull it out. No, I'm here for the girls and for a break from business, and that's it.

Jeez… business.

I don't even want to go there. It can be such a pain in the ass when you have several incompetent workers who screw up immensely one way or another. And I seriously don't trust my executive staff members much. There are twelve of them and every time we have a meeting, they patronize me, and at the same time, they make it seem like they're supporting me. Only one of the guys, Mr. Hara, is the one who truly supports me; he's a real nice guy. Honestly, the rest are just a bunch of two-faced snakes in expensive suits that are trying to bring me down. They didn't approve of me taking over the company from the start, one of them in particular being a jackass and arguing that my older cousin should take the position.

My family… hell, I barely even know them. Well, I don't remember my parents much. I only remember being taken care of by my relatives until I was thirteen; which was when I packed up my bags and left their homes. It's not like they were drug addicts or they had beaten me. I just wanted to be independent, even if I was really young at the time. But more importantly, I wanted to find my parents on my own. I made that clear to them and thanked them for their care in a note before leaving. And at some place, as I was walking, I met up with Baralai, Nooj, and Paine for the first time. We hit it off almost instantly. I also had met Rikku shortly afterwards.

To cut it short, I crashed at Nooj's place until I was fifteen and got that fateful meeting with Mr. Hara, stating that I was to be president of Machine Faction. And let me tell you, I did not understand a fucking word what he had said. I knew tons about machina, but I didn't know my father was president of that company. But when I asked him details of why my father left and anything else, he told me it was extremely confidential where even I could not be allowed to know. Truthfully, I had a sense that only he knew about it. But I didn't bother him about my parents after that.

So I was given training about the business, although many of those same jackass executive members were arguing that I was way too young. But like the news had said this morning – I'm a prodigy, and honestly, everyone has to admit it's true. I can't help it if my brains think faster than most adults. So here I am now, stuck in some boring high school class with my crazy ex beside me. Nice.

Suddenly, a hip-hop song is clearly heard playing in the silent classroom.

I think it's my cell phone.

If it is, it's ringing pretty damn loud.

People are looking around, and most are suspecting it's coming from me.

Okay, so sometimes this genius forgets some things like putting his cell phone on silent, but give me a break.

The short, yet-horizontally-big-teacher, Mrs. Kochi, turns away from the blackboard where she was writing notes on and stares at me.

"Mr. Gippal, is that your phone ringing?" she asks.

I give her a shining smile that displays my perfect, white teeth. "It is, Mrs. Kochi. I apologize for this. Could I be excused and take this call outside? I won't take long; it's most likely about business matters."

I can feel Rikku giving me a dirty look. I don't even have to turn to her to see her trying to say, You stupid suck-up.

Mrs. Kochi returns me a smile – of course, not as handsome as mine. "You may go, Mr. Gippal. I hope the matter will clear up for you."

I stand up with my cell phone and leave my suitcase on my chair. I know people are too scared to touch my stuff anyway, thinking I can get them killed the next day – which is almost true. But I won't get to that yet.

"Thanks, Mrs. Kochi," I reply with an even bigger smile. "You're too nice."

Then I walk out, leaving Mrs. Kochi flustered and telling the class what a gentleman I am, and I can hear Rikku giving a very loud cough. Damn brat.

I quickly walk down the clean hallways, down the staircase, and push the doors to step into the fresh air outside of the school's front doors.

You know, I actually like how the school's built. It's a roan building that's three stories high, and the glass windows on the second and third floor are from the ceiling to the ground, and they oversee people walking around at the bottom floor. There's 'lounge places' with comfortable armchairs and tables around certain places, and even benches along the sides of the hallways. Beside me outside is this huge garden that's surrounded by marbled walls that are half my height, and there's a garden just like this on the other side of the school's entrance. There's also a ton of cherry blossom trees enveloping the school grounds, and the walkway up to the front doors. Basically, the school's pretty damn huge and really cool in architecture.

But enough of that. My cell phone won't shut up. Or rather, the person on the other line hasn't given up yet.

I open up my sleek, black flip phone, and see that it is indeed one of my executive members calling me. Thankfully, it's not one of those jackasses.

I hit the 'talk' button. "Hey, Mr. Hara."

"Hello, Mr. Gippal."

Yeah, Mr. Hara and I are on good enough terms for me to talk to him informally. He's a cool guy.

"So, Mr. Gippal," says Mr. Hara, "how's school so far?"

I laugh. "Good Spira. I think it sucks so far, Mr. Hara."

He laughs as well. "You don't say. Well, I assume you are finding the classes down-right uninteresting as you have probably know most of the class material."

"Yeah, I guess I do. Well, only in the Math and Science courses. Subjects like History and stuff are where I'm lost because it's so boring. I just don't bother trying to pay attention. It's perfect to catch up on sleep in those classes."

"How awful, Mr. Gippal," says Mr. Hara, attempting to sound stern but failing to. I know the guy, he's trying to be an "adult" for me, but I can tell he's smiling as we speak. "I suggest you create a personal machine for yourself that pinches you each time you fall asleep."

"Heh, I'll remember that," I reply, grinning. "So, why'd you call me for? I don't think you would interrupt my precious school hours to talk with me like this."

Mr. Hara pauses slightly. "Before I speak, you must promise me that you will remain at school until it is over for the day."

I feel a little uneasy. "Sure thing. So what is it?"

He pauses again. "Something has occurred, and we all think it is very much worth your attention."

I don't like the sound of this at all. He paused more than once. He usually never hesitates; he talks freely with confidence normally, but this time he's not and it isn't sounding good. He must be quite as nervous as I'm feeling right now.

"Mr. Hara, tell me, what's – " I feel somebody approaching, and I quickly say, "Hold on" and I whip around to see Rikku walking towards me with her arms crossed.

Ah great. Why am I being punished?

She stops in front of me. "Mrs. Kochi was too kind-hearted enough to send me to get you, just to see if you're doing okay. I told her it isn't necessary and that I didn't want to, but she seems to like you a lot. Then again, someone has to."

This girl is dry man.

I glare at her. "Okay, thanks, Cid's girl. I'm still busy. Can you go away for a sec?"

She rolls her eyes. "Hurry up, slowpoke. Mrs. Kochi says I have to come back with you."

"Mr. Gippal? Are you there?" asks Mr. Hara from the cell phone.

I reply back, "Yeah, I'm still here. It's just that the leader's daughter is interrupting me." Rikku shoots me a frosty look.

"Oh, you mean, Ms. Rikku is there with you? How delightful."

I snicker. "Not until you meet her. Then tell me if it's delightful."

Rikku growls. "I heard that, jerk."

I smirk at her. "I'm glad. At least you're not deaf. Would you like me to say it again?"

"Now, now, Mr. Gippal," says Mr. Hara, chuckling on the phone. "This is Ms. Rikku we're talking about. A little more respect would be thoughtful."

"You kidding me?" I reply into the phone. "It's more like the other way around. You gotta respect your elders, isn't that right, Mr. Hara?"

"Oh, shut up, Gippal," Rikku snaps. "You gotta respect the leader's daughter too."

Mr. Hara, who heard Rikku speak, laughs and says, "She's right, Mr. Gippal."

As the jibes continue, I notice out of the corner of my eye that a sleek, black car is pulling slowly up to the front of the school. The windows are tinted dark, but I could see people moving behind it. Strange. It's like I've seen this car before. I could have sworn it was following me when I was coming to the school this morning. But this one could be a totally different car. However, I see someone's pulling down the window, and a hand is protruding out of it with a –

I yell, "Shit, Rikku!!"

I grab her and leap to the side of the garden wall with her, colliding to the ground as bullets rip through the air towards our direction, nearly missing us. They smash against the marble wall we were behind, and its noise explodes around us. All I can hear is the constant pounding against the wall. My ears feel like they're numbing from the bullet blasts, but I dare not let Rikku go. I keep holding her tightly with one arm close to me, and the other trying to shield her. She feels very tense and I squeeze her even more, trying to reassure her that we're going to be fine. She grasps my arm and nods. Suddenly, I feel this sense of protection over her, and I also dare not think what could have happened if I didn't see the black car. I wish Rikku wasn't here to go through this. I silently promise to myself that I'll get those bastards back.

But just as abrupt the bullets came, I can hear the car screech as it rapidly pulls out and speeds away. Yet we don't move from our position, nor do we make a sound yet.

I can also hear Mr. Hara's voice from my cell phone on the ground, worriedly asking what had just happened, and if Rikku and I are all right.

But I ignore him for now. All I can do is keep hugging the shaken girl close to my chest.

"No worries, Rikku, no worries," I say softly. "I'm here. We're gonna be fine."

Rikku quietly nods her head again, and holds my arm even firmer. So I keep hugging her silently for a long while.

And for once, I admit: I can't lose her.

* * *

**Chapter Two Ending**

Please review. I hope the ending wasn't so abrupt or something. Sorry if it was.

As I said, the plot keeps thickening. Read on more and review as well. Thanks. :)


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